Pam  00:00

Hey, fellow mathers! Welcome to the podcast where Math is Figure-Out-Able, and cool, and really nice. I'm Pam Harris, and I'm a little punchy.

Kim  00:11

Did you say you're Pam?

Pam  00:13

I did.

Kim  00:14

Okay. I didn't hear you. Hey, I'm Kim. 

Pam  00:17

And this episode is a MathStratChat episode, and it promises to be pretty good, where we chat about our math strategies. Every Wednesday evening, I throw out a math problem on social media, and people from around the world chat about the strategies they use and comment on each other's thinking. Hey, Kim.

Kim  00:34

Hi. Okay, this Wednesday, the math problem was 3.5 times 180. How would you solve this problem? Pause the podcast. Solve it however you want, and then come on back to hear how we solve it. The problem is 3.5 times 180. 

Pam  00:52

Alright, so, 3 and 5/10 times 180. Nah. 3 and a 1/2. I like 3 and a 1/2. 3 and a 1/2 times 180...

Kim  00:58

Wait, I thought I was going to go first. 

Pam  01:00

Oh.

Kim  01:00

You going to go first? You can go first. It's fine.

Pam  01:03

No, you can go first.

Kim  01:03

Right before, I said you went first last time. Let me go first. 

Pam  01:06

Oh, I missed it. Sorry. 

Kim  01:07

That's okay. No, go ahead. Go for it. I love it.

Pam  01:09

Should we arm wrestle? 

Kim  01:09

No, you go first. 

Pam  01:11

Ah, okay. I'm going to double 3 and a 1/2 to get 7. So, I'm going to find twice as many groups that are half as big. 

Kim  01:17

Okay.

Pam  01:17

So, 3 and a 1/2 doubled to 7. 180 halved is 90. 7 times 90 is like 7 times 9, which is 63, times 10, which is 630.

Kim  01:27

Say that one more time. 

Pam  01:29

Okay.

Kim  01:29

What did you do? 

Pam  01:30

7 times 90 is like...

Kim  01:33

Oh, okay, okay. Yeah.

Pam  01:34

...7 times 9, which is 63 (unclear).

Kim  01:36

I got in the weeds of your words. Sorry, yeah. 

Pam  01:38

Yeah, my bad. Okay. I did it kind of fast.

Kim  01:42

It's good. 

Pam  01:43

Alright, cool.  What do you got? What do you got?

Kim  01:45

I don't know that it's any better than your strategy. I like your strategy lot. I... Yeah, I said 3.5, but I also was thinking about 3 and a 1/2. 

Pam  01:54

Yeah.

Kim  01:55

And I don't know why I know three 18s.

Pam Harris  01:59

I don't either. 

Kim  02:00

No, I do know it, and I don't know why I know it.

Pam  02:02

I know. Like, I don't know why you know that either. I was just trying to wonder if I knew... Like, I know double 180 because I can picture that on a unit circle. Like double 180, and then double that's 360. So, then I was trying to think, do I know 3 of them? Is it 540?

Kim  02:20

Yeah. Well, and I wasn't even thinking about 180. But I know 3 times 18 is 54, and I have no idea why. But then, of course, that was helpful. So, then 540. And then half of 80 is 90. But only because I knew that. I know that amount was that a good strategy.

Pam  02:37

The 3 times 18? 

Kim  02:38

Yeah.

Pam  02:39

Yeah.

Kim  02:39

Otherwise I would have double halve too. 

Pam  02:41

Yeah.

Kim  02:42

Interesting. 

Pam  02:43

Alright, cool. 

Kim  02:44

It's fun when things pop out of your head.

Pam  02:46

I like it. 

Kim  02:47

Alright. We can't ever... We can't...

Pam  02:52

We can't something. We can't talk today.

Kim  02:54

The whole day. The whole day (unclear)

Pam  02:56

Kim, we got to get these Problem String books done, so that we can like breathe again. 

Kim  03:00

(unclear). Alright, people, we're excited to see what you do each week. We scroll through and check out what you're doing, so join us on MathStratChat and let us know how you think about the problems. And please comment on other people's strategies. 

Pam  03:10

Oh, it's so fun when you comment on other people strategies. We post the problems on Wednesdays around 7pm Central time. When you answer, tag me and use the hashtag MathStratChat, then join us here to hear how we're thinking about the problem. We love having you as part of the Math is Figure-Out-Able Movement. Thanks for making math figure-out-able.